January Artist-in-Residence John Zaklikowski has titled his residency Culture and Physics Collide, an apt description for his artwork which utilizes a wide variety of technological materials and meets at the intersection of art and science. His large-scale assemblages investigate notions of perception and optical illusion, illustrating the interplay of art, science, literature, and cultural studies.

August Artist-in-Residence Peggy Gyulai explores the connections between music and the expressive possibilities of paint on canvas in her work. She listens to and looks at music as a subject, object, inspiration, and—like Richard Diebenkorn—invokes the dynamic tension between the poles of abstraction and representation, creating substance from ephemeral phenomena.

It’s summertime at the de Young, which means that the museum’s Summer Art Camp is in full swing and the Hamon Education Tower has been filled with talented young artists and creative energy. During week one, campers explored the theme of “Mixed Media Madness,” creating pieces that incorporated a range of materials and techniques including oil pastel and watercolor resist, splatter painting, masking, and plein air ink wash paintings. The incredible art making continued into week two as campers studied works in the de Young’s permanent collection and crafted their own pieces centered around the idea of “Stories in Art.”

In plain sight or behind closed doors, in basements, or beneath manhole covers, lurk the myriad systems that support city life—drains, running water, sewage treatment, and fire-suppression, to name just a few. The Urbanauts, current de Young Artist FellowsSean Orlando and Rebar, have tasked themselves with the exploration of this infrastructure and its relationship to the everyday experience of the contemporary city. Their investigations began last October and now—during the second phase of their fellowship—they present Systemic, an installation on view in the de Young’s Kimball Education Gallery that will evolve throughout the month of June. We recently spoke with the Urbanauts about their project.

April 12, 2013

De Young Artist Fellows Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth are preparing for the final installation of their monumental triptych The Conflicts. Get a sneak peek at the culminating exhibition of their fellowship in the group show Punch Card, opening at Catharine Clark Gallery this Saturday, January 19, 2013. Hope and Roth will present the completed tapestries at the de Young in the Artist Studio throughout the month of March. In this blog post, Hope and Roth examine the role technology has played in the process of creating this work.

This week, de Young Artist Fellow Monique Jenkinson debuts Instrument, the culminating performance of her yearlong fellowship. Inspired in part by the special exhibition Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance (on view at the de Young through February 17, 2013), the performance piece will make its world premiere at CounterPULSE, a collaborating partner, on November 29. To create Instrument, Jenkinson partnered with three different choreographers, with each collaboration taking place in isolation. All three choreographers remain unaware of the work of the other two participants, and like us, they will not see the work in its entirety until the premiere.

This is the final post in a three-part series documenting Jenkinson’s work with each of these diverse choreographers. Chris Black, falls somewhere between the experimental process of Miguel Gutierrez and the more structured ballet techniques of Amy Seiwert.

De Young Artist Fellow Monique Jenkinson is putting the finishing touches on Instrument, the culminating performance of her yearlong fellowship inspired in part by Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance (on display at the de Young through February 17, 2013). To create this work, Jenkinson invited three choreographers to make movement on her body, which she’ll integrate with her own choreography. In October, we posted about the first of these three collaborations, and today, we check in with Jenkinson and choreographer Amy Seiwert in the second installment in this three-part blog series.

Tonight, Friday Nights at the de Young features work in progress by Artist Fellow Monique Jenkinson (aka Fauxnique). As part of the creation of her original work, Instrument, Jenkinson is working with three different choreographers in an experimental process designed to enact, expose, and undermine the roles of the dancer as workhorse and the choreographer as auteur. The presentation tonight will be a rare opportunity to witness the development of Instrument, inspired in part by Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance (on display at the de Young through February 17, 2013). The first in a series of three, today’s post focuses on the collaboration between Jenkinson and choreographer Miguel Gutierrez.

For the past year, Artist Fellow Sarah Wilson and her artistic partner Catch Me Bird have been creating Off the Walls, a multimedia performance based on the de Young Museum’s iconic painting Aspiration (1936) by Aaron Douglas. On September 20, the world premiere of Off the Walls will take flight in the Koret Auditorium at the de Young. Today we highlight Z Space, one of the project’s collaborating partners, whose technical residencies offer artists and performers the time and resources to experiment with various staging elements and production designs integral to the creative process.

On September 7, Friday Nights at the de Young celebrates the DIY ethos of the Bay Area arts scene. One of the many local art organizations taking part is Papergirl SF, a community art project that distributes submitted art pieces by bicycle to people in the streets of San Francisco, paperboy style.

Catherine Herrera is a Bay Area artist and filmmaker of Ohlone descent who has collaborated with the de Young Museum on numerous projects over the past several years. This Friday Night at the de Young, September 7, Herrera’s video installation Bridge Walkers will be on view for one night only in the observation deck on the ninth floor of the museum’s Hamon Education Tower. In this, the third installment of Five Days of Friday, director of public programs Renee Baldocchi sits down with Herrera to learn more about the installation and the artist’s practice.

You know that saying “It’s always five o’clock somewhere?” Well, this week it’s Friday everyday! We’re bringing you five days of Friday to showcase the amazing events taking place this (and every) Friday Night at the de Young through November 23.

Artist-in-Residence Tamar
Assaf creates artwork articulating subtle social and ecological commentary on the environment. Her work raises awareness
of the human influence on animals in the wild and how entire ecosystems function as a delicate balance of interdependencies.
Throughout the month of August, Assaf invites visitors to engage in hands-on activities at the de Young as they experience

Guest blogger Kelsey Linton takes us inside the de Young Summer Art Camp where we catch up with the Apprentices, Artisans,
and Muses and Masters as they learn about this week’s theme, "The Power of Painting and Printmaking."

One of the most innovative components of the Artist Fellows program is the goal to reveal the process of artistic creation—the weeks (even years) of planning, the evolving ideas, and the constant back-and-forth that foments creativity. Throughout the month of July, Artist Fellow Sarah Wilson and her artistic partners, Catch Me Bird (C. Derrick Jones and Nehara Kalev), have been exhibiting this collaborative process as they work together to produce Off the Walls. A multimedia performance that melds Wilson’s dynamic jazz-oriented music with Catch Me Bird’s dance and aerial performances, Off the Walls is inspired by the painter Aaron Douglas, whose painting Aspiration is a highlight of the de Young’s American painting collection.

Love Letters from the Harlem Renaissance tells the story of the relationship between Alta Sawyer Douglas and her husband, Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas. Catch Me Bird’s C. Derrick Jones, the great nephew of this seminal American painter, shares his family’s story with guest blogger Elspeth Michaels. Tonight at Friday Nights at the de Young Jones will speak about the factors that propelled his great uncle to establish himself as one of the 20th century's visionary artists. This fall Catch Me Bird, in collaboration with Artist Fellow Sarah Wilson, will premiere a brand new production inspired by the art of Douglas entitled Off the Walls. The performance combines music, aerials, and dance as an expression of Douglas's painting Aspiration, which is currently on view in Wilsey Court.

This month, Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope begin their year as
de Young Artist Fellows by setting up a research
studio in the Kimball Education Gallery. Roth and Hope will use this time in the
Artist Studio
to design the third piece in a triptych of tapestries, which will be known as The Conflicts

Tonight,
Friday Nights at the de Young celebrates the history of the dandy from
Oscar Wilde to Jean Paul Gaultier. Whereas
Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic style was derided as too feminine,
Jean Paul Gaultier embraces gender bending, dressing men in skirts and women in exquisitely tailored suits. In this way,
Gaultier's designs approach a new androgyny and subvert established fashion codes. The designer toys with standard concepts of
the masculine and feminine throughout the special exhibition
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, but one exhibit in particular literally speaks to this issue. He is the Man in the Mirror.

Seven years ago, the de Young hosted its first jazz performance in partnership with
Intersection for the Arts.
Jazz at Intersection at the de Young came about through my relationship with Kevin Chen of Intersection for the Arts.
Together we invited a wide range of local jazz composers and musicians to create and perform music inspired by the museum’s
special exhibitions and permanent collection.

Composer, trumpeter and singer-songwriter Sarah Wilson technically grew up in a vineyard, but her coming of age as a musician took place in New York City. At her first performance as an Artist Fellow at the de Young tomorrow, Friday, May 25, Wilson presents new work inspired by both the rolling hills of the Napa Valley and New York City’s wild women of jazz.

Wilson began her yearlong fellowship last November with a 10-day residency at Stags’ Leap Winery, where the vineyards—their colors and moods—served as muse for the new compositions Night Still and Color, both of which will be featured in tomorrow’s performance.

Tomorrow, May 12, 2012, the Legion of Honor presents
Music, Muses and Divas, public programs associated with
The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900 (on view through June 17). Premier scholars of Victorian art Tim Barringer and Peter Trippi lecture on the complmentary
topics of music and theater in the context of the Aesthetic Movement. We asked our lecturers a few questions about their
respective talks to provide insight into the day’s presentations.

From his earliest forays into fashion design, Jean Paul Gaultier utilized surprising and sometimes recycled materials. As a
child, inspired by his grandmother’s corset, Gaultier repurposed crumpled newspaper to create the conical-shaped falsies that
he attached to his beloved teddy bear, Nana. Entering its seventh year,
Discarded to Divine—an event that auctions off designer duds made
from donated clothing to benefit the homeless—exemplifies Gaultier’s earliest instincts to recycle with style and purpose.

The blog series Museum Without Walls
features de Young Artist Fellows working outside of the museum with other artists and local, community based arts
organizations. In this edition, we catch up with Sarah Wilson and Catch Me Bird at their Djerassi alumni artist residency where
they gave us a glimpse into the early stages of their creative process.

What’s Going On: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye,
the second installment in Kevin Epps's curated Filmmakers Lounge
series, examines the life and legacy of this astounding musical artist. Serving once again as a guest blogger, Epps talks
about his life-long connection to the music of Marvin Gaye.

William Morris, champion of the Aesthetic Movement, said of interior design, “Whatever you have in your rooms, think first
of the walls.” Wallpaper was a defining decorative motif in the homes of the Victorian avant-garde and bourgeoisie alike. In
keeping with this fashion, the special exhibition
The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860–1900

Today's guest blogger is 2011 de Young Artist Fellow Kevin Epps, whose film Fam Bam had its world premiere at the de Young last fall.As part of the Museums’ goal to continue its relationships with Artist Fellows and their collaborating partners–in this case the African American Art and Culture Complex–Epps will curate a two-part Filmmaker’s Lounge series featuring movies by local filmmakers.To celebrate Black History Month, Epps has selected films that draw from his memories of growing up in San Francisco’s African American community.The series kicks off this Saturday, February 4 with Which Way is Up?, starring Richard Pryor.

In continuation of our series
Museum Without Walls, we visited Todd T. Brown’s studio as he prepares for his final exhibition as an Artist Fellow at
the de Young.
Inheritance and Dreams will be on display in the Kimball Education Gallery February 1–12.

This month in the Artist Studio, glass artist Dana Zed is drawing museum goers into her world of mirrors and reflection.
Including the public in the process of art making is integral to the mission of the Artist in Residence program, but working
within the Kimball Education Gallery and with the public often results in surprising collaborations, as Zed has
discovered.

This month, the de Young begins its second installment of the Artist Fellows program, which brings working artists from a variety of disciplines into the museum for a year. During this year, Artist Fellows will break open their art process by exhibiting works-in-progress and investigating new avenues of creativity through collaboration with the museum, partner institutions and other artists.

Each artist is associated with a collaborating institutional partner, an aspect of the program specifically designed to encourage museum engagement with local, community based arts organizations. Working both within and without the walls, the Artist Fellows will inhabit a new kind of museum, one without walls. In celebration of this next phase of the Artist Fellows program, we will focus on these extra-museum collaborations in a blog series called Museum Without Walls.

With Friday Nights at the de Young on hiatus until March 30, 2012, we thought we’d take a moment to recognize some of our most dedicated supporters. Meet the Pelaez family, longtime museum members and intrepid fans of Friday Nights at the de Young. Parents Jenna and Steve along with their two kids, Payton, 7 and Aria, 5 have rarely missed a Friday Night in the past six years. We asked them what were some of the highlights from their weekly ritual.

December 2, 2011

I’m Julian Cox, chief curator at the de Young, and tonight we are very excited to present the world premiere of FAM BAM, a new film by Artist Fellow Kevin Epps. The film will be shown in two back-to-back screenings in the Koret Auditorium at 6:30 and 7:10 p.m. Immediately following the second screening, there will be a question-and-answer session with Epps, during which he will share insight into his creative process and describe how he has used his time as an Artist Fellow to develop his ideas for this latest project.

This week, Epps and I sat down to talk a little about his background and how archives and material culture infuse his work in film.

November 25, 2011

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season when we reflect on what we value most in life: family. Family is also the focus of Artist Fellow Kevin Epps’s documentary Fam Bam, which critically examines the structure of the black family in America and premieres this Friday Night at the de Young.

In keeping with this theme, the final Friday Night of the season will host a San Francisco family reunion, de Young style. Share the de Young with your loved ones by taking this self-guided tour through the permanent collection to see how artists from around the world and throughout history have depicted the age-old subject of family.

Start your tour in Gallery 12 just off of Wilsey Court, where you will enter the mysterious world of Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Masks and Dolls. Meatyard's family, although often masked, served as the primary model for the photographer. Focusing on childhood and familial relationships, Meatyard sought to reveal the emotional reality of universal experiences.

November 25, 2011

San Francisco has always been a site for the convergence of cultures. As Campo Santo Theater prepares to premiere Block by Block, a tribute to the city inspired by the cast and crew members' love for their own neighborhoods, we take a glimpse at some of the special places that make our beloved city such a tapestry—the people, the places, the food, and the history.

Campo Santo, de Young Artist Fellow and award-winning resident theater company of Intersection for the Arts premieres Block by Block: The Pura Principle, its newest theatrical work, in the de Young's Koret Auditorium on November 17, 18, and 19. The performance is based on recent short stories and original writings by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz.

Block by Block brings back to the stage Díaz’s wild and beautiful voice. Sean San José, theater director for Campo Santo, has adapted Diaz’s writings to life in our city, bringing a multimedia San Francisco block party to the de Young.

Audiences will be taken on a journey through San Francisco, block by block. Actors, dancers, and musicians interpret six neighborhoods–downtown, the Fillmore, the Excelsior, Hunters Point, the Mission, and the Castro–in vignettes reflecting the unique rituals found in each of these culturally rich neighborhoods. Experience DJ battles with Felonious; dance-offs with Nicole Klaymoon and the Embodiment Project; the murals of the Mission with projected visuals created by acclaimed artists Favianna Rodriguez, Evan Bissell, and Ricardo Richey; the urban life and writings of Junot Díaz with the Campo Santo Street Team and DJ Wonway; and Susie Lund, who transports you with Subway Strutting to Carnaval.

The academic tradition of learning to draw by imitating the works of established masters has been alive for centuries. Professor Rick Rodrigues has been bringing this rich tradition the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco since 1995, when he initiated a partnership between the City College of San Francisco and the Museums. Professor Rodrigues's drawing classes cover a variety of skills and techniques, ranging from basic life-drawing using models and tone-drawing to more obscure old-master techniques, such as silverpoint drawing or staining with tea or coffee. His much-beloved classes are a deeply fulfilling experience, giving young artists the opportunity to learn from art history's old masters directly in the museum setting.

Visitors are always welcome to sketch in the Museums' permanent collection galleries. Sketching in special exhibition galleries is by permission only and subject to lender and gallery restrictions. Please see our museum policies for more information.

City College San Francisco Students sketching in the Rodin Gallery at the Legion of Honor.

Education intern Megan Friel recently sat down with Professor Rodrigues, who is still passionately committed to the academic tradition of museum drawing after 16 years of teaching, to discuss his experiences directing the program.

On July 8, visitors who attended Friday Nights at the de Young had the chance to experience the Artist Fellows Showcase, which featured contributions from the first class of Artist Fellows: Campo Santo, Kevin Epps and Todd T. Brown.